Paperwork
by Brennan4
Summary: Shadow contemplates over the most boring part of his job.


Shadow hated doing paperwork. It was easily the worst part of his job as a G.U.N. agent. When he first signed up (something he had already been reluctant to do) he had assumed that the bulk of his time would be spent wrecking robots and tracking down megalomaniacs like Robotnik. To an extent, that was true. But like every government worker, he had to spend a great deal of time filling out a seemingly endless stream of forms describing his operations down to the most specific details. He sighed as he flipped over the form he was working on and began filling out the back.

_I've been at this for hours,_ he thought. _I should just give up and go to sleep._ But he didn't want to wake up in the morning knowing this would be looming over him. He had enough to worry about as he got out of bed each day. Like how he felt he couldn't connect with his fellow agents like Rouge could, running into Sonic and his insipid band of Technicolor woodland creatures, Maria…

He always tried to change his train of thought whenever Maria came to mind. His memories of her were still hazy. He remembered feeling happy all of the time around her, but eventually memories of her death started to creep back in. Every time they did, he couldn't focus on anything else and had to recompose himself. Right now he was almost glad about the paperwork. It gave him something else to think about. His memories shifted back to his most recent mission.

Robotnik/Eggman/whatever that lunatic liked to call himself had been converting more animals at a hidden factory that Shadow had raided. He tried to think of the most graceful, official language to describe Robotnik's crazy rants that he spouted the entire time as Shadow demolished his machinery. Shadow chuckled to himself._ That psycho really is a piece of work. Hard to believe his ancestor brought me into the world…_

Professor Gerald Robotnik was another subject Shadow fought to not think about. H remembered him as a kind, eccentric man who truly loved Maria and science. Remembering him on that video, pronouncing the death of the human race, always made him shudder. _And the worst part is, _thought Shadow, _I almost helped him do it. _Both he and the G.U.N. psychologists suspected that Gerald had modified Shadow's mind while in stasis, implanting commands to carry out his plan, perhaps in a similar way to how he controlled the Biolizard.

Every day, as he looked at the people working alongside him, Shadow had to fight bile and distrust towards them that he felt on Gerald's behalf. Even though it happened 50 years ago, their raid on the Space Colony Ark was hard to justify. So was the execution of Professor Robotnik. _Sometimes I look at them and think that they're monsters. Is that me talking, or Gerald?_

Shadow was always afraid that he would revert to the way he was immediately after his awakening. The temptation had arisen several times during the Black Arms invasion. Both Black Doom and the Professor had tried to use his grief and turn him into a monster. They tried to make him hurt innocent people. But were the G.U.N. agents innocent? He thought, _It doesn't matter though. Maria wouldn't want me to hurt them, so I won't. _

Maria had become a guiding force in his life, almost like a religious figure. She reminded him of Sonic, in a way. Both had the same admirable, if naïve, outlook on the world. Maybe that was why he was able to work with Sonic and his friends, annoying as they were. Especially Amy, even if she was completely psychotic. She, more than anyone else, had helped him return to rationality aboard the ARK. It almost made him feel comfortable around her when she brought out that ludicrous hammer. Almost. Shadow smirked. _Now that's the type of person we should be keeping tags on._

Shadow felt a wave of satisfaction as he signed his name at the bottom of the form. _Finally finished. _Now all he had to do was track down the robot obsessed scientist, beat him again, and he would be back filling out forms by the end of the week. In all, this wasn't that bad a job.


End file.
